STEPPER MECHANICAL CLOCK / ESP32 APPLICATION
Mechanical Clock
A mechanical HH:MM:SS clock with six Hall-referenced stepper motors, driven by a custom PLC-style non-blocking architecture on an ESP32-S3.
About this project
About this project
Six digit wheels, one per HH:MM:SS character, each turned by a NEMA 17 stepper through a TMC2209 and zeroed by its own Hall sensor. An ESP32-S3 runs the whole thing as non-blocking function blocks in the style of IEC-61131-3, with hand-written `Ton`/`Tof` timers instead of `delay()`, so no missed step pulses. A modulo wrapper around AccelStepper always advances through the shortest positive path, and homing approaches the switch at reference speed, backs off, then closes in at a tenth of that. UART diagnostics were abandoned for plain STEP/DIR with MS1/MS2 strapping at 1/64. Status is honest: one wheel of the six is running.
From the README
From the README
- Motor
- NEMA 17 steppers, 200 full steps/rev (1.8°), direct-drive — no gearbox
- Driver
- TMC2209 (STEP/DIR mode, MS1/MS2 microstepping)
- Input
- Hall-effect sensors (one per digit wheel, homing only)
- Display
- 128×64 SSD1306 OLED (I²C)
- Limit
- one of six digit wheels is running
Hardware
Native board: Waveshare ESP32-S3-Pico
Boards: ESP32-S3
ESP32-S3. Verify the exact board revision, wiring and power requirements in the upstream build guide.
Media credit & rights
Upstream project media · rights remain with its owner · Credit: bernhardfoelk
Screenshots from the upstream README. Code and firmware were not executed. License notices are included.
View original source ↗ Copyright & removal · Reviewed
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